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Hyouka Juubei
Appearance: Despite being an Onryo, creatures with famed horrific appearances, Hyouka's manages to retain her appearancs quite well. Her long stringy black hair, a tire to maintain what with its hip length, bangs included, she combs and washes on a daily basis, keeping it neat and straight. She folds her hair back in a neat messy bun, two chopsticks with small yellow skull themed ribbons tied on them keeping her hair in place. Some small thin strands of hair still hang down though, but not enough to be prominent. Despite the bun, she keeps a long leftside bang hanging down to her hips. She has a dyed yellow streak both going to the bun and also hanging down inside the bang. Her left eye is covered with a black eyepatch, hiding a fresh gaping wound that shows the inside of her head. Her single eye is light red in color, having dark yellow eyeshadow around in the style of kabuki. Her skin is a pale most would associate with the sickly or dead, being a blue-ish hue, sometimes appearing translucent under light. Her lips, colored yellow in lipstick, heavily contrast. Her features look surprisingly delicate and graceful despite her condition, giving her a sort of quiet beauty similar to a flower about to wilt. Offsetting her features more, Hyouka has several piercings on her face. Two on her lower right lip, three on her left ear, and one on her tongue. Her attire is a bit odd, in the sense that it's her own kimono while in life, but modified for modern times for her own personal interest. She wears a black sleeveless kimono with red trimming in the style of a halter top, showing off her bare shoulders, back, and some sideboob. Around her waist she has a deep yellow sash with her families mon on it in black, being a snowflake who's bract resembles an ume (japanese apricot), the back of the sash neatly wrapped around and folded at the back to resemble a sunflower with black tipped petals, pressing her kimono tighter around her body. While the front of her kimono stops just below her hips, the back continues to go down and hit the floor, trailing behind her as she walks. On her right arm she has a detached sleeve, oversized and draping down to shin with her arm down, a yellow daffodil flower and flowing petals design on it with white outlines. Underneath her kimono she wears compression shorts, her legs additionally are covered by black thigh high stockings that wrap around the bottom of her feet, keeping the toes and heel bare. A yellow design goes through the stockings, yellow koi jumping up and falling down through it with a seamless wave background weaved in. In place of shoes, she wears plain traditional wooden geta. Her bare shoulders reveal the several tattooa she has, all of them going along her back. They avoid her right shoulder and arm however, keeping it bare, but flock to her left shoulder and arm and go along it as well as her back. She has several ridiculous tattoos, such as a skeletal dragon with dry sprouts popping out the sides flying around the wounds on her back, a heavily thorned vicious rose roped around a cracked compass with the words "Everywhere Suck" written below it, a crawling bloody hand with string wrapped around and cutting into it with the words "Are Questions Asked Your Lied," a dry corpse wrapped in bloody cloth with the words "Die Young Save Self," and several other little gems. As for her arm, a bloodied dripping rose with the blood leaking down to a noose hanging from it on her leftside shoulder with the words "Neck Deep," a rusty old dagger stabbing through a black heart with splurting and barbed wire wrapped around both down on her forearm, a thin delicate hand holding a bandaged bent flower with the words "Not Broke, Bent" underneath it on her bicep, a bird flying away from a rich meadow with a diamond behind it in the back of her hand and leading up her arm, and some other similar styled ones. Now in terms of assecsories, she has a strawhat hanging from her right side she'll put on occassionally, and two sheathed swords on her left side crossed over in am X shape, one sheath black and another red, both having yellow highlights. Plucked into her ears she has a small pair of earphones, the white wire drooping down to her right side where her music player is tucked away. Despite her apparent beauty, as an Onryo, Hyouka's body is less so the part. The aforementioned eye, along with a messily severed right elbow tendon that has her dominant arm limp uselessly, and several whip and burn scars that dig deep into the flesh of her back. In the case of her eye she uses an eyepatch, and with her elbow she covers it with her sleeve, her undead prowess and some freezing of the wound together being enough to allow it to function properly. With over usage though, her arm begins to hang uselessly for real. As for her back, she just claims they're part of her tattoos and moves on. In times of using her powers more, mist begins to rise from her body. Personality: Hyouka, at first impressions appears as her namesake. Fragile and delicate, an ethereal existence that feels as if it'll drift away at a moments notice. She holds little to no presence at all, most people not acknowledging and actually seemingly surprised when they notice her. She doesn't seem to mind or care about this, preferring it that way, though no one would know that since in the first place she doesn't talk much. She only speaks when spoken too, or when there's something worthwhile to say, preferring not to waste words. While she could be mistaken as "emo" due to how she looks, the aura she lets out moreso matches "zen," having achieved some form of enlightenment. Which isn't wrong. She has the patience of a saint, seeing no reason to get upset, being neither impatient or impetuous, thinking things through carefully being doing them. While this "zen" can often times come off as cold-hearted and even iron-clad like, she does hold some since of compassion, or at the very least some form of moral code following old bushido practices. She'll protect woman and children if she can, though a man is a bit of a gray area at the current moment, and she dislikes cheating and dishonest methods of conduct. Disrespect for simply disrespect follows this, if they're fine opponents and people, they should be honored properly, regardless of personal feelings. Loyalty and integrity and important assets as well, sticking by those she takes a rare liking to rather fiercely, if a bit unseen, and never needing to speak a promise. Whatever she says is already considered done. Though, this way of archaic thinking doesn't match very well with modern society, and might even come out as a bit stiff. It still is a bit surprising to some, given just how overall cold she is. Her rationality matches her outlook, being something of a demon of logic, unswayed by her own emotion. She prefers to take the shortest optimal measure necessary to acquire a goal with coolness, even being fine with necessary sacrifices. All of this comes out as rather contradictory to her to her Onryo nature however, being the exact parallel of the impatient vengeance hungry irrational vile ghosts. In truth, Hyouka is very much like this, at all times. It's simply just, her method is more quiet and methodical, her mental state of Zero co-aligning with her thoughts of blind vengeance, the two incompatible philosophies melding into a disgusting mold within, making her someone with a quiet, unseen hatred that's akin to a quiet raging blizzard, the execution being a thoughtful, methodical approach over a blind lustful hunt. It's the difference between a beast's mentality, and the mentality of a trained warrior, the latter having refined her. Her killer intent is well inside her, a large amount buried deep inside her, wanting to truly slay all men and swordsmen, but, her warrior's mind and mental discipline well hides and conceals this fact, none of her actions holding any form of malice or killing intent, all appearing as the same cold calculated moves. Much of this silent rage has dissipated though after her spat with the delinquents. While in the past, she would very well slay any man she came across, and especially any swordsmen, this has now mellowed out after her debacle with the delinquents. Now, at best without any form of provocation, she just feels a strong irritation and dislike towards them, choosing to go against them and their ways to do whatever she wants instead, looking as if though she's rebelling against the status quo like some kind of punk as a result. Backstory: Hyouka was born into an atypical samurai family, holding little to no prominence in the current feudal times. As an only child, her father was an open-minded individual, and so decided to teach her the way of the sword at eight-years old. Simultaneously, her mother would take her and teach her the ways of a woman, teaching her cleaning, cooking, laundry, and the like. She became quite adept at the sword, becoming a quick learning, enjoying its teachings greatly. At around 14, her father began gaining prominence from his skill in local battles and in defending his dojo from lawless ronin, gaining some fame. Along the way, Hyouka began defending the dojo as well, making a name for herself as a female warrior. At 16, she attracted the eye of the son of a local daimyo, gaining his adoration due to her beauty, strength, and spirit. In an attempt to gain some power and wealth, her father had her marry off to his man, the two having their ceremony that very same year, and then becoming married. Despite the forced marriage, she grew to be happy with the arrangement, her husband being a kind and understanding man, as well as quite capable with the blade. Her only complaints were that how he seemed to insist that he should be the one defending their name over her, saying that men were inherently stronger than woman. He was also weak to the advances of other woman, having the will of soggy tofu. At age 18, one day it was discovered her husband was having an affair with another woman, the wife of a far more prominent daimyo, something which caused great uproar. Despite his own entitlement, her husband was taken away and imprisoned thrown away to rot. While feeling betrayed and thinking him a fool, she still attempted to save him, fighting her way into the prison to free him. She eventually found herself overwhelmed however, becoming imprisoned much like her husband. In an attempt to get even with him, they began torturing her in front of his eyes, whipping and burning the back of her back, and then forcing themselves unto her in front of her while making him watch. They cut the tendon in her right arm so she could never swing her sword again, and then cut out a hole in her left eye for them to have another hole for them use for their own sick pleasure. However long this treatment lasted, she doesn't know, as she eventually ended up dying. Left with discarded feelings, she could only feel hatred, enraged by the foolishness of her own husband and the sick practices the men who called themselves samurai practiced. As this hatred began to grow and fester, Hyouka then came back as an Onryo, her grudge bared towards foolish men and samurai alike. With her new powers, she made quick work of the samurai that killed her and her husband, and then moved on from there, becoming something of a beastial lawless ronin, wondering the lands with a broken sword and will, only looking to kill any men and samurai that wandered her path. As she killed, she became more and more powerful overtime, until eventually she was actually defeated. In around the year 1635, she was defeated in a duel by none other than an old decrepit man, someone by the name of Miyamoto Mushashi. It was someone far past his prime, and that for all intents and purposes should have been on his death-bed, and yet he had successfully fended off and defeated Hyouka, but did not slay her, swearing to never once again accept a lethal duel after the death of his rival. Despite her existence, he accepted her, choosing to instead teach her the reasoning for her loss so her swordsmanship could improve. He briefly elaborated upon his teachings and philosophies, as well as his own technique and mentality, as compared to Hyouka's. While he may be a decrepit old man with a brittle body, she was a thoughtless beast swinging her sword wildly. Even with strength, should it have no purpose, it would never reach it's target against a master. Bestowing upon her a rough-draft of his famous Book of Five Rings, he then departed, leaving Hyouka to study it for herself. In doing so, she became fascinated with its teachings, quickly adapting them for herself in order to improve her own swordsmanship. In an ironic twist, she was saved by a man, only to kill men more efficiently. She began practicing her sword skills daily, instead killing men for the purpose of increasing her skill and technique, once again becoming a lawless ronin. After several years of doing this, perhaps half a century or more, she had mastered and learned what she could, so she decided to learn more, and more, and more. All in the name of becoming more efficient in killing men. As Japan began entering the Meiji period, she left the country to test her mettle in other locale, choosing to fight other races and warriors to test her abilities, thought all were men. Near when the Triad began making itself present publicly in the modern world, she had decided that her skills and swordsmanship had been refined enough, choosing to become an assassin for work as a way to eliminate men and test her skills. Having followed through with this work for over 100 years, and having been in possible over 1,000 fights and battles, taking the lives of possibly thousands of men and samurai, she was eventually once again defeated in modern time Osaka, by a group of three delinquents that got the better of her. Once again not slain, Hyouka wanted to learn the reasoning for her loss, seeing something in the delinquent she did not have, a form of strength she was not familiar with. And so, after some arguing, she had followed them to the prominent school Osaka Gakuen, becoming a begrudging member of their gang after having much of her grudge fade away from her. Abilities Hyouka is an accomplished swordswomen that has lived enough for five lifetimes, having mastered various skills, styles, and techniques. Her main practices involves the schools of Yagyū Shinkage-ryū, Ganryū, and Niten-Ichi-Ryu, with smaller studies in ninjutsu, jujutsu, kenpo, iaijutsu, and shinken shirahadori. She's quick to learn and elegant, adjusting herself from any mistake made, meaning using the same kind of technique or attack on her more than once is dangerous. Outside her extraordinary combat purposes, she's a decent tracker, and also a fairly decent house-wife as well. Though, much of her skills in cooking and cleaning have deteriorated in the centuries she's focused on her swordsmanship, they're enough to satisfy. She's a surprisingly competent artist as well, dabbling into both ink wash painting and graffiti alike, often blending the two together onto scrolls and the sides of buildings. Outside combat and combat related knowledge, such as info on monsters and the different species, she doesn't know much. Coming from a time where education wasn't valued, her intelligence could be said to be idiotic. Her hand-to-hand is no slouch either, going for sudden powerful strikes in fatal locations, while using her own opponents power against them for throws and grapples to strike them on the ground. She's skilled enough to even deal with armed opponents while barehanded, able to do such super-human things as catch swords and bullets. She could easily take on a group of attacks without her sword, it just makes it even easier. Zero She has reached what is considered the ultimate mental state for a swordsman, nothingness, reaffirming that one is nothing, thus invincible. The state of "Zero." She follows through a state of total zen, her presence perfectly masking itself and hardly being considered "there," her movements seeming as if she's teleporting due to no one registering her in the first place. None of her movements hold any force or motive, holding a fluid substance that lacks any sort of intent, something quite dangerous as she uses it to suddenly draw a sword and cut down an enemy in movements that have no doubts or hesitations, coming off as natural as breathing with zero killer intent, all in one seamless action in sheathing the sword again as if she had done nothing in the first place. That kind of technique that feels more like a cheat, a supernatural type of skill achieved through mental discipline and fortitude alone, furthered heightened by her own undead qualities to involve disappearing from the living. It certainly feels like she's disappearing away into nothing, making it difficult for anyone to notice her or her actions, even amongst the most well-trained warriors and even supernatural or technological systems. The only way to truly detect her would be having the same mentality and training as her own, being able to see through the fading technique used and can be countered as a result. In reality though, it's just an over-complex method that makes reading her movements and motives difficult due to making it trickier to register her, the act of handing over a fork as a friendly gesture being able to be masked as a killing intent to stab the person, and even masking some of her entire movements, making it seem as if it's just "teleporting." Swordsmanship She's taken a shine to the technique of Hirazuki, the use of holding the katana from the pommel and parallel to the ground and up near the shoulder. From this position, a quick, powerful and extensive thrust can be initiated and then, if necessary, altered to form a sideways slash. While thrusts are the most predictable of attacks to dodge, counter, and defend against, and the stance makes it so it's much more applicable to pull back and defend against should the thrusts miss. However, Hyouka uses her undead superhuman like speed to go for three consecutive curved thrusts, going for the left shoulder, up the neck, then the head. While the curve makes it lose some power, the angle upward she thrusts with makes it a fluid motion that can be done in near a second, and easier to adjust her thrust more to the right should they dodge there, or go for a quick backhand slash to the right should they dodge there. While it was made using the basis of Hirazuki, it mirrors more the technique of Sandanzuki. However, due to how she executes it, it isn't as effective against people shorter than her. She focuses on single sword brandishes during the start of fights, aiming to end it in an instant sure-kill strike to speed things up. During combat she focuses on interchanging between swift quick swings while shuffling her feet, following the flying swallow (or enpi) technique from shinkage-ryu, though doing it one handed in following the teaching of niten-ichi-ryu, and switching between repetitive heavy swings, following the mountain's shadow (yama-kage) and moon's reflection (tsuki-kage) techniques, all still one-handed. If she needs to break through armor she'll flip the blade and wield it from there, using the weight of the hilt to cut through, or techniques such as the small surf (uranami) or cascading flow (takinagashi). If she really needs to and is pressed, she can dual-wield both of her swords, mixing both swift swings and heavy swings in both hands, though she doesn't like doing this much unless she has too. She prefers to keep her other hand free for other things, such as martial-arts if need be or throwing kunai. Should need be, she can even alternate to the Ganryu school by making a nodachi with her powers, using the long-sword techniques in an elegant, precise manner. As a school with little info or basis, founded by the legendary Sasaki Kojiro, there is much guesswork on how the actual school is practiced, but would Hyouka does is a series of quick slashes while moving around the opponent, appearing as if though she's dancing or floating along the air by skidding along the ground via ice she makes, mimicking the flight of a swallow. Despite the sword's length she uses for this, she's able to move it around with practiced ease, its movements similar to a fencing tool rather than a nodachi. Her practiced ease and skill with the style go for long, swift strokes with the blade, along with the occasionally elbow slam if too much distance is closed. As she could never witness it, she couldn't truly learn the Tsubame Gaeshi. As she could never truly achieve it, she decided to make her own, the Tsubame Mai (Swallow Dance), going around the opponent to go for six blinding strikes around them, or even more if need be. Ninjutsu Her ninjutsu helps with her hand-to-hand, though she has practiced and become adept at 17 out of the 18 schools of applied ninjutsu, being bajutsu, bōjutsu, bōryaku, chi-mon, Chōhō, Hensōjutsu, intonjutsu, kenjutsu, Kusarigamajutsu, naginatajutsu, Seishinteki kyōyō, Shinobi-iri, shurikenjutsu, Sōjutsu, sui-ren, taijutsu, and tenmon''.'' These levels have only been happened because of her mentality, her mentality of Zero adapting well with the techniques to able to seemingly appear and disappear from thin air, excellent at espionage, concealment, infiltration, and escape due to this. She's adept at hitting her mark with kunai and other throwing weapons, even a short-sword if need be. While she has practiced spear techniques and has become quite well at it, she dislikes it over her sword so sticks to that instead. She will occasionally use a kusarigama if need be though, enjoying the viciousness of it a bit. Onryo Having come back with quite the powerful vengeance, Hyouka holds even deadlier abilities aside from just her natural skills, making her an even more dangerous foe. Or, she did. After her confrontation with the delinquents and the loss of much of her vengeance as she joined Osaka Gakuen, her Onryo powers don't amount to nearly as much of a threat as they once were. Now they only serve as a minor nuisance that can be pesky at best, though she is still more than adept with them. While it has mostly dissipated, her grudge towards men and sword-wielders is still there a bit, enough to anchor her existence to the world and still grant her some of her abilities, if minor. Outside that niche, they don't do much, but can still affect people. Her fear inducement gives strong chills to any males that happen to be around her within about ten feet, able to freeze only one for near a second if she focuses. This effect is only doubled if that man is also a swordsmen. Anyone else only feels a slight chilly breeze, not bothering them aside exposed skin feeling slightly cool. She never dabbled into curses much even when her power was at its peak, preferring to cut down her opponents personally through her own skill than using some magical means. At most, she would use them to force men into combat with her, cursing those close to them or even just they themselves and stating it would only disappear should she be slain in combat. Those kinds of death curses now can only be used to make a flu at best, something to minorly annoy someone. Either that, or the kind of minor inconvenience curse that has people always stub their toe at the corners of tables or get constant paper-cuts. Through the use of her spectral energy, she is capable of bolstering her other abilities a bit, letting out a cold mist from her body that can fill up the area, at her present level making men feel highly unnerved and uneased, once again doubling if they're swordsmen. As for freezing their soul in place, it follows the same principle of paralyzing them with fear, stopping all men in the mist for about a second if she focuses. She can use this mist for other purposes as well, shooting out large amounts to conceal herself in an area for a surprise attack, or to escape. She can control her spectral energy to even make bladed weapons, such as increasing the length of her sword into a nodachi. Though, the sharpness does vary. While in the past she was filled with enough hate to cut through anyone no matter who, her blade has dulled significantly. Due to her inverse state of zen and burning vengeance, her blade however is still similar to glass, delicate and brittle, yet capable of easily cutting through anything she focuses on if she does heavily. For anything with little hostility however, the cut will be minor and healed easily. Against men, it'll be moreso a moderate cut with the capability of being fatal, while with men who are swordsmen the effect is doubled. With increasing hostility, these effects will increase, reaching the levels of fatal with those that are outside the grudge, and reaching levels that can cut through even the thickest of armor for her grudge. She can very well aim to cut or freeze someone's soul, leaving small frostbite and freezing like effects on the affected area. Though, following the principle of her blade's sharpness, it's similar to that. For someone she's fine with, it's more a slight paper-cut with a chill. For men, minor frost-bite that can healed, while swordsmen it's doubled. As hostility arises, it can rise up to outright freezing the area and having it fall apart, though only about a butter-knifes equivalent. It still is effective as it can bypass armor however, but not as effective anymore as swinging her sword naturally. As for cutting someone from a distance with her sword, she has to focus on her curse quite heavily, her range only being about 20 meters with that as compared to how ridiculously long it was before. Cutting or freezing their soul with a curse from a distance is half that, and it takes twice as much focus. Outside the typical Onryo uses, she uses her spectral energy for other utilities, such as ice for her drinks, or to skate along the ground during combat to increase her mobility. She can even pop up ice-walls or icicles around her person if need be, though only does this to defend her behind from attackers. It is useful for mobility though, freezing the bottom of her feet to walls and ceilings to walk on them, and freezing the bits of water she's walking on to walk a top it. Making small items such as kunai and short-swords is helpful as well, as well as small bits of armor to defend her side if need be. Physically freezing someone from normal cuts or touch is possible, but at her level of grudge doing it is near impossible. Equipment The only noticeable pieces of equipment on her are the two swords at her side, though in actuality those are just decoration. While being fine swords, made from capable smiths, they're broken. Only a bit of the blade above the hilt is left, the rest having been broken off by Hyouka herself. They're the two blades belonging to two unknown swordsmen that came close to defeating her, two pair blades belonging to a younger and older brother that she kept as mementos of their skill. While seemingly useless, she instead just makes blades of ice using them, having them meet the point of metal. She makes other equipment with her ice powers as well, such as kusarigama, kunai, and ice-bombs that spew out mist when landing. Trivia: * Hyouka means Ice Flower * Juubei is a reference of Yagyu Jubei, who she has loose inspiration from. She has loose inspiration from various famous Japanese swordsmen, such as Miyamoto Mushashi and Sasaki Kojiro. *十兵衞氷花 is supposedly the kanji for her name *As evident in her tattoos, her English is very poor. *Her family's mon, or symbol, is a depiction of a winter flower, mirroring her own winter chosen name. *Her alias, Mumei, is based off how she wiped away her own name after having been reborn, instead accepting herself as just a wandering spirit of vengeance with little purpose, something fundamentally different from when she was alive.